Scanner web service for web application and scanner driver communication

ABSTRACT

A computer system with a scanner web service set up as a local host is provided. An HTTP message is received from a client-side web application code client-side running in a web browser on the computer system by the scanner web service. A message based on the received HTTP message is sent to a scanner driver that is in communication with a scanner connected to or integrated with the computer system. Scanned image information is received from the scanner driver, and is provided to the client-side web application code running the web browser.

CROSS REFERENCE TO OTHER APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/537,726, entitled SCANNER WEB SERVICE FOR WEB APPLICATIONAND SCANNER DRIVER COMMUNICATION filed Jun. 29, 2012 which isincorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Web browsers usually operate in a sandbox and do not allow webapplications to access any of the hardware on a client computer.Therefore it is hard to use a web application to scan images using ascanner and upload scanned images to the internet. Current workaroundsfor this problem include installing plug-ins to the web browser or usingActive X controls. However, plug-ins are browser dependent and still donot let web applications contain a webpage that comes from anapplication server or web server to access scanner hardware on theclient computer. Active X controls used by web applications can accesshardware but require permissions and could be a source of attacksdepending on the source of the Active X control. For that reason, manyActive X controls are blocked by network administrators and not trusted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the followingdetailed description and the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an embodiment for a system with a scannerweb service that allows communication between a client-side webapplication code running in a web browser on a client computer and ascanner.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the scanner web service.

FIG. 3A is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a method thatclient-side web application code uses to request scanner web service fora scanner to scan a page and send the received information to a server.

FIG. 3B is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process by whicha scanner web service communicates with a scanner driver and client-sideweb application code.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a method for a webapplication to perform scanning of a page using the scanner web service.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as aprocess; an apparatus; a system; a composition of matter; a computerprogram product embodied on a computer readable storage medium; and/or aprocessor, such as a processor configured to execute instructions storedon and/or provided by a memory coupled to the processor. In thisspecification, these implementations, or any other form that theinvention may take, may be referred to as techniques. In general, theorder of the steps of disclosed processes may be altered within thescope of the invention. Unless stated otherwise, a component such as aprocessor or a memory described as being configured to perform a taskmay be implemented as a general component that is temporarily configuredto perform the task at a given time or a specific component that ismanufactured to perform the task. As used herein, the term ‘processor’refers to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing coresconfigured to process data, such as computer program instructions.

A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the invention isprovided below along with accompanying figures that illustrate theprinciples of the invention. The invention is described in connectionwith such embodiments, but the invention is not limited to anyembodiment. The scope of the invention is limited only by the claims andthe invention encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications andequivalents. Numerous specific details are set forth in the followingdescription in order to provide a thorough understanding of theinvention. These details are provided for the purpose of example and theinvention may be practiced according to the claims without some or allof these specific details. For the purpose of clarity, technicalmaterial that is known in the technical fields related to the inventionhas not been described in detail so that the invention is notunnecessarily obscured.

Techniques to allow client-side web application code to interactdirectly with a connected scanner, such as to obtain scanned image data,is disclosed. A scanner web service is set up as a local host on theclient computer that allows communication between client-side webapplication code running in a web browser and a scanner driver. Thescanner driver communicates to a scanner connected to the clientcomputer to control and use the scanner. In some embodiments, theclient-side web application code sends HTTP messages through an HTTPconnection to the scanner web service set up as a local host. In someembodiments, the scanner web service is asynchronous. In someembodiments, an application programming interface (API) is provided. TheAPI in some embodiments includes a set of predefined method calls thatthe scanner web service accepts.

In some embodiments, the scanner web service accepts HTTP messages thatset, get, and/or control scanner functions and scanner configuration.The scanner web service communicates to a scanner driver to instruct thescanner to scan a page. In some embodiments, the scanner web servicereceives scanned image information from the scanner driver and storesthe scanned image information in local storage of the client computer.The scanner web service encodes the scanned image information beforeproviding the scanned image information to the client-side webapplication code. The client-side web application code receives scannedimage information and provides the scanned image information to bedisplayed in the web browser, for example. In some embodiments, theclient-side web application provides the scanned image information to anapplication server for further processing or to be stored.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an embodiment for a system with a scannerweb service that allows communication between a client-side webapplication code running in a web browser on a client computer and ascanner. Client computer 110 comprises a processor and a local storagein system 100. A user using client computer 110 can navigate to awebpage that provides a web application that allows the user to scan adocument or image using scanner 120 and upload it to the internet. Forexample, a user uses an online bookkeeping web application and the userattaches a scanned image of the receipt for a business expense using thescanner connected to the user's computer. Also, for example, a user isusing an online document storage service and would like to scan andupload documents to the online document storage service.

Scanner 120 is connected to client computer 110. Client computer 110 isinstalled with a scanner driver to allow communication between clientcomputer 110 and scanner 120. Client computer 110 can be a laptop, acomputer, a tablet, a smart phone or general computing device that isable to connect to a scanner. Scanner 120 is a device that includesoptical elements to make a digitized image or electronic image of aphysical paper or printed media.

Web applications are applications that are accessed via a web browser(e.g., web browser 140) and typically involve a connection with a remoteserver. Web applications typically involve client-side web applicationcode that comprises code that is executed by a browser and server-sideapplication code that processes and/or stores information from theclient-side portion. The server-side application code serves or sendsclient-side web application code to the client computer when a usernavigates to a webpage with which the client-side web application codeis associated. In some embodiments, client-side web application code iswritten in a scripting and/or markup language that is executed by webbrowser 140 to render the client-side web application code executable atthe client computer. For example, a client-side web application code maybe written in JavaScript and included in and/or downloaded by a web pagethat is provided to the client computer.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the scanner web service. Aweb browser (e.g., web browser 212 or 140 in FIG. 1) on a clientcomputer (e.g., client computer 210 or 110 in FIG. 1) requests andreceives web pages from application server 250 (or web server) through anetwork connection (e.g., Internet 240, or local area network, Wi-Fi,optical, or wireless carriers) in system 200. A webpage with aclient-side web application code can be received from an applicationserver and executed by web browser 212. Web browser 212 sends andreceives data to application server 250 using a page load (e.g., an HTTPrequest, for example, when a user navigates to a page or clicks on alink) In some embodiments, client-side web application code 214 loadedinto web browser 212 communicates with application server 250 using anasynchronous HTTP request (e.g., using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript andXML) and an embedded XMLHttpRequest object in the webpage that does notrequire the web browser to do a page load). In some embodiments,client-side web application code uses the asynchronous HTTP requests tosend and receive data to application server 250 for application server250 to process. In some embodiments, client-side web application code214 sends data to application server 250 to store. Application server250 can also be one or more servers, or applications served from acloud.

In some embodiments, client-side web application code 214 includes ascanning feature for a user to scan a document and upload the documentover the internet to application server 250. In some embodiments,client-side web application code 214 is written in browser executablecode. In some embodiments, client-side web application code is writtenin Javascript and includes HTML. In some embodiments, client-side webapplication code is written using standard browser executable codelanguage that is browser independent, and can run on any web browser. Insome embodiments, client-side web application code 214 is written usinga user-installed web application framework as a plug-in to web browser212. Other browser executable scripting languages or code can be used towrite client-side web application code including JAVA™, SILVERLIGHT™,DHTML, HTML 5, and FLASH™.

In some embodiments, in order to allow a web application to scan to theinternet, scanner web service 216 is a web service running as a localhost on client computer 210. Just as web application code 214 is allowedto send and receive data through HTTP requests to application servers(e.g., server 250) that are external to client computer 210, client-sideweb application code 214 can send HTTP messages to scanner web service216 installed as a local host (e.g., http:\\localhost\) on clientcomputer 210. Scanner web service 216 installed on the client computerthen has access to scanner driver 218 and hardware resources on theclient computer, such as local storage 220. In some embodiments, scannerweb service 216 sends messages to scanner driver 218 to instruct scanner230 to perform scanner functions. Therefore, a user using a webapplication served from an application server can scan and upload imagesto the application server. In some embodiments, scanner web service 216only accepts HTTP requests from the local machine (i.e., the clientcomputer).

In some embodiments, client-side web application code 214 sends HTTPmessages using Javascript to scanner web service 216 and parses theresponses that are in JSON (JavaScript Objection Notation) format. JSONis a human-readable text-based data format for serializing object data.In some embodiments, client-side web application code 214 is writtenusing a user-installed web application framework as a plug-in to webbrowser 212. In some embodiments, a scanner web service add-on libraryis provided for the user-installed web application framework to easilyconstruct HTTP messages to scanner web service 216. For example, auser-installed web application framework is MICROSOFT™ SILVERLIGHT™installed into a web browser (e.g., INTERNET EXPLORER™, CHROME™,FIREFOX™, or SAFARI™), and an add-on library to MICROSOFT™ SILVERLIGHT™is provided so that a client-side web application code written with theSILVERLIGHT™ framework can interact with the scanner web service, whichinteracts with the scanner driver to control a scanner.

In some embodiments, client-side web application code 214 is served fromapplication server 250 on a secure HTTP connection (e.g.,https://connection). The secure web page with client-side webapplication code 214 running in web browser 212 is signed with acertificate issued by a trusted authority. In some embodiments, webscanner service 216 is set up as a local host that accepts secure HTTPconnections (e.g., https://) bound with a self-signed certificate. Soclient-side web application code 214 can also establish a secure HTTPconnection with scanner web service 216. A secure HTTP connection tolocal host scanner web service keeps all of the messages and datasecured and prevents a warning to appear in the web browser that aportion of the content is unsecured. In some embodiments, two scannerweb services are started on client machine 210. One scanner web serviceis an unsecured scanner web service and handles unsecured HTTP messages.The other scanner web service is a secured scanner web service andhandles secured HTTP message that are signed with the self-signedcertificate issued to the “localhost.” In some embodiments, theself-signed certificate issued by “localhost” (i.e., the web service setup as local host) and issued to “localhost” is placed into thecertificate store of the operating system and/or browser specificcertificate stores.

Scanner driver 218 provides a communication interface from clientcomputer 210 to scanner 230 to use scanner 230 to scan pages. Scanner230 is a scanner with various settings and functions to scan physicalpages into an electronic image of each page. In some embodiments,scanner 230 is configured to scan the physical page with various imagesettings and provide image data and image metadata. In some embodiments,scanner driver 218 is a scanner driver that conforms to the ISIS (Imageand Scanner Interface Specification) scanning standard. In someembodiments, scanner driver 218 is a scanner driver that conforms to theTWAIN standard. In some embodiments, scanner driver 218 implements bothISIS and TWAIN driver standards and can communicate with both ISISscanners and TWAIN compliant scanners. In some embodiments, scanner webservice 216 is compatible and communicates with ISIS scanner drivers. Insome embodiments, scanner web service 216 is compatible and communicateswith TWAIN scanner drivers. In some embodiments, scanner web service 216is compatible with a scanner driver that combines a TWAIN scanner driverwith an ISIS driver.

In some embodiments, scanner web service 216 is included with thescanner driver 218. For example, the scanner web service is installed atthe time the user gets a scanner and installs the scanner on theircomputer (e.g., client computer 210 or 110 of FIG. 1). In someembodiments, scanner web service 216 is installed separately from thescanner driver. For example, when a user wants to use a web applicationthat uses a scanner, the user will download and install scanner webservice 216 the first time the user uses the web application.

FIG. 3A is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a method thatclient-side web application code uses to request scanner web service fora scanner to scan a page and send the received information to a server.At least a portion of 300 is performed by client-side web applicationcode 214 of FIG. 2 executed by web browser 212 of FIG. 2 on clientcomputer 210 of FIG. 2.

At 310, in some embodiments, a web application (e.g., client-side webapplication code 214 of FIG. 2) establishes an asynchronous connectionwith a scanner web service (e.g., 216 of FIG. 2) installed as a localhost on the client computer. In some embodiments, the web applicationhosted on a server (e.g., application server 250 of FIG. 2) and theclient-side of the web application running in a web browser are subjectto the same-origin policy when trying to access the local host. In someembodiments, JSONP (JSON with Padding) is used to overcome thislimitation. In some embodiments, the web application (i.e., server-sideweb application code and client-side web application code) written inuser-installed web application framework includes a policy file thatallows cross domain access, particularly to the localhost. In someembodiments, the policy file that allows cross domain access foruser-installed web application framework also allows scanned imageinformation received from a scanner web service to be uploaded to athird-party server or third-party online storage to the web application.In some embodiments, the security configuration of the client computeris changed (e.g., by the user or by the scanner web service when thescanner web service is installed) to allow the web application access todomains across domain boundaries.

In some embodiments, in order for client-side web application code toestablish a connection to a web scanner service set up as a local host,a list of ports is provided to the web application developer so thatclient-side web application code is instructed to look for a scanner webservice at the local host of a port on the list of ports. In someembodiments, client-side application code sends an HTTP message to eachport on the list of ports until client-side application code gets aproper response from the scanner web service. For example, in order toestablish a connection, client-side web application code sends an HTTPGET request comprising a start a scan session to one of the designatedports of the scanner web service. Client-side web application code goesthrough the list of ports until it receives the expected response fromthe scanner web service. In some embodiments, the scanner web service isstarted at startup of the client computer. In some embodiments, theclient computer has a list of unassigned ports to utilize to try tostart a scanner web service. In some embodiments, the scanner webservice starts two services on two different free ports from the list ofports, one service a secured service (e.g., an HTTPS service host) andone service an unsecured service (e.g., an HTTP service host).

In some embodiments, client-side web application code, when sending arequest to scanner web service to initiate a scan session, also sends anapplication ID. In some embodiments, application ID is an identifierissued to web application developers to identify the web applicationthat uses a scanner to scanner web service. In some embodiments,application ID is used to indicate that an application developer islicensed to use the scanner web service. In some embodiments,application ID is a self-validating identifier. In some embodiments, ifapplication ID is not valid, the scanner web service places a watermarkon all of the scanned images before sending the scanned images to theclient-side web application code.

In some embodiments, the first time a user uses a web application thatuses the scanner, the user will be prompted to give permission to allowthat web application to use the scanner connected to the clientcomputer. In some embodiments, the scanner web service determines thatit is the first time a web application has used the scanner web servicebased on the application ID. The first time a web application uses thescanner, a pop-up window is displayed to the user to get the user'spermission to allow the web application to access the scanner. In theevent that the user does not allow the web application that uses thescanner permission to use the scanner, the web application will beblocked from using web scanner service.

In some embodiments, scanner web service returns a session ID inresponse to the initiate a scan session request. In some embodiments, ascan session comprises detecting and connecting a scanner device,configuring a scanner, starting a scan job, and ending a scan job. Insome embodiments, a session ID identifies a specific scan sessioninitiated by a web application.

At 312, client-side web application code sends an HTTP message to ascanner web service. In some embodiments, the scanner web serviceincludes an API (Application Programming Interface) with predefinedmethods to set, get, and control scanner functionality and scannerconfigurations. The scanner web service API comprises a limited set ofmethods, thereby protecting the client computer from security attacks.The scanner web service only responds to method calls set forth in thescanner web service API. In some embodiments, the scanner web serviceAPI is a JSON API. The message sent to the scanner web service is anHTTP request message (e.g., HTTP GET) and result values are returnedfrom the scanner web service in JSON format. In some embodiments, thescanner web service is an API written for a user-installed webapplication framework. In some embodiments, the HTTP message isgenerated using the add-on library to the user-installed web applicationframework. In some embodiments, HTTP messages sent to the scanner webservice are URL encoded. URL encoded messages ensure that only legalcharacters in a URL are used to send HTTP messages. For example, methodcalls in the API to set scanner configuration can use any characters inUTF-16 and some of the UTF-16 characters that are not allowed in a URL,like “*”. Therefore, the client-side web application code is required toURL encode some of the HTTP messages.

In some embodiments, scanner web service method calls return a result tothe client-side web application code. In some embodiments, a resultcomprises a return code and associated additional data. For example,client-side web application code sends an HTTP GET request with theCreateScanJob method call in a query string. The CreateScanJob methodstarts a scan job (i.e., starts scanning a page) and returns the resultof success or fail of starting the scan job. In some embodiments, thescan job is an asynchronous operation and continues after the result ofCreateScanJob is returned until the images are scanned or the scan jobis canceled. In some embodiments, client-side web application code sendsan HTTP message to the scanner web service to check on the status of ascan job. For example, while a scan job is performing a scan of images,the scanner web service returns a status of “In Progress.”

At 314, client-side web application code requests scanned imageinformation from the scanner web service. In some embodiments, themessage sent to the scanner web service 312 also includes a request forthe scanned image information. In some embodiments, after the scanner isdone scanning a page, scanned image information is sent to the scannerweb service and the client-side application code can request the scannedimage information from the scanner web service. In some embodiments,scanned image information comprises image data and image metadata. Insome embodiments, image data in the context of an image object isreturned using JSON. In some embodiments, scanned image informationcomprises an image ID. In some embodiments, the scanner web serviceresponds to the client-side web application code request for scannedimage information with image data (i.e., the bytes of the images file).In some embodiments, scanned image data is encoded before sending thebytes of the scanned image to the client-side web application code. Forexample, image data bytes are encoded with Base64 encoding and sent tothe client-side web application code. In some embodiments, the imagedata includes stream objects of the scanned image information. In someembodiments, the image data includes a multi-page file of a plurality ofimages.

In some embodiments, client-side web application code provides thescanned image information to the web browser to be displayed. In someembodiments, the scanner web service provides an image URL to theclient-side web application code which is composed into an image tag(e.g. HTML “<img . . . >” tag) and the scanned image information isviewed. For example, after receiving scanned image data from the scannerweb service, client-side web application code displays a thumbnail ofthe scanned image. In some embodiments, the image URL is a link to animage file on the local storage.

In some embodiments, while the scanner is still scanning a page,client-side web application code requests scanned image information ofpages that were scanned before the page being currently scanned. In someembodiments, scanner web service initiates communication with thescanner driver on a separate thread than the thread used to listen toHTTP messages from the client-side web application code. In someembodiments, only one scanner is allowed to be used, including only onesession at a time and only one scan job at a time. In some embodiments,once a scan job has finished, a new scan job can be created in the samesession, but not while a scan job is in progress.

At 316, the scanned image information is provided to a server by theclient-side web application code. In some embodiments, the scanned imageinformation from the scanner web service is sent to an applicationserver (e.g., 250 of FIG. 2) or to an online storage (e.g., 260 of FIG.2) as part of the function of the web application. For example, a useruses a web application (including client-side web application code) toscan a receipt in a scanner, and then the client-side web applicationcode sends the scanned image of the receipt to the application serverfor extracting purchase amounts from the receipt and storing theinformation in the application server or online storage in communicationwith the application server. In some embodiments, the client-side webapplication code does further processing on the scanned imageinformation before sending it to a server. In some embodiments, aportion of the scanned image information is provided to a server. Forexample, a user views the scanned images in the web browser and selectsonly a few images to send to the server to be stored.

FIG. 3B is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process by whicha scanner web service communicates with a scanner driver and client-sideweb application code. At least a portion of 340 is performed by scannerweb service 216 of FIG. 2.

At 342, the scanner web service receives an HTTP message sent byclient-side web application code. In some embodiments, the HTTP messagefrom the client-side web application code indicates what the client-sideweb application code would like the scanner to do. In some embodiments,the HTTP messages are HTTP requests that map to a method in scanner webservice API to control a scanner and return a result code to theclient-side web application code. In some embodiments, an HTTP messagefrom the client-side web application code comprises a method call andone or more parameters associated with the method call. In someembodiments, the HTTP message from the client-side web applicationrequires scanner web service to return some data. For example, the HTTPmessage comprises the GetImageData method call, and scanner web servicereturns the contents of the scanned image. Also for example, the HTTPmessage comprises the GetStatus method call and scanner web servicereturns the status of the scanner web service or scanner.

At 344, the scanner web service sends a message to a scanner driver. Ifthe received message involves configuring or controlling the scanner(e.g., start a scan job, stop a scan job), then the scanner web servicesends a message to the scanner driver. In some embodiments, the scannerweb service generates and sends a message to the scanner drivercomprising a scanner driver method and parameters based on the receivedHTTP message from the client-side web application code. In someembodiments, the scanner web service generates a message to the scannerdriver in a format that the scanner driver understands. In someembodiments, the scanner driver is also implemented as a service, andoperations of the scanner are executed asynchronously (i.e., the scannerdriver does not wait until the scanner operation is done to return aresult). In some embodiments, the scanner driver includes a componentimplemented as a service on the client computer to receive messages fromthe scanner web service, and the component interfaces with the scannerdevice.

In some embodiments, the scanner web service loads the scanner driverand the scanner when a scan session is started. In some embodiments, thescanner web service manages the life time of the scanner driver bydetecting malfunctions of the scanner driver and shutting down andrestarting scanner drivers. In some embodiments, the scanner web serviceis started as a service on a separate process space as the scannerdriver. Separating the scanner web service and the scanner driver ondifferent process space prevents corruption of the scanner web service.

At 346, scanned image information from the scanner driver is received.In some embodiments, the scanner scans images or scans pages based onthe control messages received at the scanner driver. In someembodiments, scanned image information comprising image data isformatted by the scanner web service. In some embodiments, scanned imageinformation is converted to a specified file type. In some embodiments,scanned image information is compressed. For example, raw image data isreceived from the scanner driver and the scanner web service convertsraw image data into a JPEG format. In some embodiments, scanned imageinformation is supplemented by image metadata. In some embodiments, oneor more of the following metadata is added to the scanned imageinformation returned to the client-side web application code: page side,blank page, bar codes, job separator, stream ID, page number, documentID, image number, or printed text. In some embodiments, a portion of themetadata is added by the scanner. In some embodiments, the scanner webservice adjusts the scanned image information from the scanner. In someembodiments, one or more of the following adjustments are applied to thescanned image: brightness, contrast, rotation, cropping, offset, orscaling. In some embodiments, a portion of the adjustments desired bythe client-side web application is applied by the scanner.

In some embodiments, the scanner web service stores image data and imagemetadata on local storage on the client computer (e.g., 220 of FIG. 2).In some embodiments, scanner web service generates an image URL to thestored image data and image metadata. In some embodiments, the image URLis a part of the image metadata. In some embodiments, the scanner webservice manages the stored image data and image metadata and the imageURL, and deletes stored image data and image metadata when the scannerweb service is closed (e.g. when the client computer is shut down). Insome embodiments, the scanner web service deletes stored image data andimage metadata when the client-side web application code is closed orfinished running, or when the browser is closed. In some embodiments,the scanner web service deletes stored image data and image metadataafter a predetermined time interval (e.g. after 48 hours).

At 348, scanned image information is provided to the client-side webapplication code. In some embodiments, image data is encoded beforesending to the client-side web application code. In some embodiments,image data and image metadata is formatted into an image object in JSONformat. Then scanned image information comprising image data and/orimage metadata is provided to the client-side web application codethrough the HTTP connection.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a method for a webapplication to perform scanning of a page using the scanner web service.At least a portion of flowchart 400 is performed by client-side webapplication code 402 (or 214 of FIG. 2), scanner web service 404 (or 216of FIG. 2), and scanner driver 406 (or 218 of FIG. 2).

In some embodiments, the arrows of flowchart 400 represent messagespassed between client-side web application code 402, scanner web service404, and scanner driver 406. In some embodiments, in the flowchart of400, arrows represent a method call to the scanner web service API or amethod call to the scanner driver. In flowchart 400, the messagesbetween client-side web application code 402, scanner web service 404,and scanner driver 406 in a timeline represent an example of a typicalscan job using scanner web service.

At 410, create session is sent to scanner web service 404 from theclient-side application code. In some embodiments, client-side webapplication code 402 connects to scanner web service 404 on a port thatthe client-side application code thinks the scanner web service will beon. If client-side web application code 402 receives a response that ascanner web service should send, then the web application hassuccessfully connected to scanner web service 404. In some embodiments,scanner web service 404 returns a result with a session ID. In someembodiments, the session ID identifies a scanning session by a specificscanner with scanner configuration settings.

In some embodiments, scanner web service 404 receives a message fromclient-side web application code 402 to get a list of the scanners thatare installed. In some embodiments, scanner web service 404 returnsinformation about the scanners installed on the client computer. In someembodiments, client-side web application code 402 then provides the listto the user to select a scanner that is installed on the client computerto use. In some embodiments, scanner web service 404 provides a list todisplay to the user to select a scanner. In some embodiments, scannerdriver 406 provides a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to select a scannerthat is attached to the client computer.

At 412, load scanner is sent to scanner web service 404 from client-sideapplication code 402. In some embodiments, the scanner that is loaded isthe scanner that was chosen by the user. In some embodiments, theclient-side application code sends a message to the scanner web serviceto load a scanner by a scanner name. At 414, load scanner is sent fromscanner web service 404 to scanner driver 406. In some embodiments,scanner web service 404 loads the scanner by loading an instance of thescanner driver and then sending messages to the newly started instanceof the scanner driver. In some embodiments, scanner web service 404sends a message to scanner driver 406 to load a scanner or to activatethe scanner (e.g., turn the scanner on or wake up the scanner or loadnecessary runtime executables to operate and communicate with thescanner).

In some embodiments, at 416, show scanner UI is sent to the scanner webservice 404 from client-side application code 402. In some embodiments,the scanner UI comprises the scanner's configuration settings. In someembodiments, at 418, show scanner UI is also sent from scanner webservice 404 to scanner driver 406. In some embodiments, the scannerdriver provides the scanner UI. Using the scanner UI to setconfiguration settings is optional. In some embodiments, client-sideapplication code 402 requests the scanner configuration from the scannerweb service (and in some embodiments, the scanner web service requeststhe scanner configuration from the scanner driver). In some embodiments,the client-side web application code sets the scanner configuration. Insome embodiments, the web developer who wrote the client-side webapplication sets the scanner configuration, using an HTTP message, tothe scanner web service. In some embodiments, client-side webapplication code 402 provides a user interface for the user to set thescanner configuration in the web browser. In some embodiments, scannerconfiguration comprises scanner settings. In some embodiments, scannersettings comprise page size, color format, channels, dots per inch, andother settings and features of the scanner. In some embodiments, scannerUI also includes a user interface for the user to select a scanning areaof the page to scan. In some embodiments, the scanner settings are setfor multi-stream scanning so that more than one image is returned perpage. In some embodiments, the more than one image comprises differentmodes of the scanned image. For example, a multi-stream scanning settingindicates that the scanner is to return a 24-bit color and a black andwhite image.

At 420, create scan batch is sent to scanner web service 404 fromclient-side web application code 402. In some embodiments, create scanbatch starts a scan job with one or more pages as designated by theclient-side web application code in the message. In some embodiments, afile type and an image compression for the scanned image information isindicated in the image. At 422, start scanning is sent to scanner driver406 from scanner web service 404. In some embodiments, scanning is alsoan asynchronous operation by the scanner, and the scanner driverinstructs the scanner to start, and returns a result to the scanner webservice that the scan job has started. In some embodiments, a scan jobID is returned to the client-side web application code to identify thespecific scan job that a set of scanned images will belong to. In someembodiments, client-side web application code 402 creates another scanjob before the scan job is completed. Only one scan job can be scanningat a time, but there can be more than one scan job in a session. In someembodiments, client-side web application code 402 starts to get thescanned image information while the next scan job is scanning.

In some embodiments, at 424, scanned image information is returned byscanner driver 406 to scanner web service 404. In some embodiments,scanned image information is returned page by page from the scannerdriver to the scanner web service. In some embodiments, if the scannerhad an error during its normal operation, at 426, the scanner driverreturns an error to the scanner web service. For example, if a scannerhas an automatic document feeder and a page gets jammed that haltsscanning, an error is returned. In some embodiments, the pages that werescanned and image information for the pages that were scanned arereturned to the scanner web service. In some embodiments, in the eventof a scanning error, the pages previously scanned are lost.

In some embodiments, scanner web service 404 stores the returned scannedimage information in local storage. In some embodiments, scanner webservice 404 formats or converts scanned image information. In someembodiments, scanner web service 404 provides an image URL to the storedscanned image information to client-side web application code. In someembodiments, scanner web service 404 adds metadata to scanner imageinformation. In some embodiments, scanner web service 404 creates animage identifier for each image that the scanner driver returns. In someembodiments, scanner web service 404 breaks up scanned image informationinto separate images. In some embodiments, scanner web service 404combines one or more scanned pages to create a multipage image.

At 430, check batch status is sent to scanner web service 404 fromclient-side web application code 402. While the scanner is stillscanning or a scan job/batch is in progress, at 432, scanner web service404 returns “In Progress” as the batch status. In some embodiments,batch status is not “In Progress,” which indicates that the scan job iscompleted. In some embodiments, a Get Status message is sent at any timeto the scanner web service to check on the status of the scanner. Forexample, the scanner web service will return “In Progress” if thescanner is not done loading.

In some embodiments, the client-side web application code repeatedlychecks the batch status until the scan job is done and the returnedbatch status is not “In Progress.” In some embodiments, client-side webapplication checks the batch status for a particular scan job using thescan job ID. In some embodiments, one scan job can be completed whileanother scan job is in progress. In some embodiments, after a scan jobis complete, the images are available to be retrieved from the scannerweb service.

At 434, get image is sent to scanner web service 404 from client-sideweb application code 402. In some embodiments, the scanned imageinformation is requested from the scanner web service by client-side webapplication code using an HTTP request. At 436, the image is returned tothe client-side web application code from the scanner web service. Insome embodiments, an image ID is returned of the images in the scan job.In some embodiments, data of the scanned image information in a scan jobis returned. In some embodiments, a stream object of the scanned imageinformation is returned. In some embodiments, client-side webapplication code 402 requests scanned image information for a specificimage ID in a scan job. In some embodiments, client-side web applicationcode 402 receives more than one image ID from scanner web service 404and sends a message to scanner web service 404 to combine the more thanone image IDs into a multipage image, and return the multipage image ID.

At 438, end scan batch is sent to scanner web service 404 fromclient-side web application code 402. In some embodiments, end scanbatch cancels a scan job and scanning, if a scan job is still inprogress. In some embodiments, end scan batch closes a scan job andreleases all resources including all images.

At 440, end session is sent to scanner web service 404 from client-sideweb application code 402. In some embodiments, end session closes thesession and unloads the scanner.

Some operations of the scanner operate asynchronously and can last for along, indeterminate time. In some embodiments, the followingasynchronous operations are made available by scanner web service API:load scanner, load scanner by name, get scanner list, show scanner UI,create scan job, and get multipage ID. In some embodiments, an immediateresult is returned like a status message or a scan job ID is availableafter calling one of the asynchronous operations.

Although the foregoing embodiments have been described in some detailfor purposes of clarity of understanding, the invention is not limitedto the details provided. There are many alternative ways of implementingthe invention. The disclosed embodiments are illustrative and notrestrictive.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer system, comprising: a processorconfigured to: receive from a client-side web application code runningin a web browser on the computer system an HTTP message to the scannerweb service; generate a message based at least in part on the HTTPmessage; send the generated message to a scanner driver, wherein thescanner driver is in communication with a scanner connected to thecomputer system; receive the scanned image information from the scannerdriver; and provide the scanned image information to the client-side webapplication code running in the web browser; and a memory coupled withthe processor, wherein the memory is configured to provide the processorwith instructions.
 2. The system as in claim 1, wherein the client-sideweb application code establishes a connection with the scanner webservice by searching through a list of ports on the local host.
 3. Thesystem as in claim 1, wherein the client-side web application codeestablishes a connection with the scanner web service by receiving astart scan session HTTP message from the client-side web applicationcode.
 4. The system as in claim 3, wherein the start a scan session HTTPmessage includes an application identifier.
 5. The system as in claim 1,wherein the client-side web application code is written in browserexecutable code.
 6. The system as in claim 1, wherein the client-sideweb application code is written using a web application framework. 7.The system as in claim 1, wherein the client-side web application codeuses an add-on library to generate HTTP messages to the scanner webservice.
 8. The system as in claim 1, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to store the scanned image information from the scannerdriver to local storage.
 9. The system as in claim 1, wherein the HTTPmessage is sent over a secure HTTP connection from the client-side webapplication code to the scanner web service.
 10. The system as in claim1, wherein providing the scanned image information to the client-sideweb application code comprises providing scanned image information inJSON format.
 11. The system as in claim 1, further comprising encodingthe scanned image information.
 12. The system as in claim 1, wherein thescanned image information comprises image data and image metadata. 13.The system as in claim 1, wherein the scanned image informationcomprises a stream object.
 14. The system as in claim 1, wherein if thescanner web service is receiving the HTTP message from the client-sideweb application code for a first time to access the scanner connected tothe computer system, then providing a pop-up message to receive userconfirmation to allow the client-side web application code to use thescanner.
 15. The system as in claim 1, wherein the scanner driver is anISIS scanner driver.
 16. The system as in claim 1, wherein the scannerdriver is a TWAIN scanner driver.
 17. The system as in claim 1, whereinthe message to the scanner driver comprises a message to open aconfiguration settings GUI (Graphical User Interface), and receivingscanner configuration settings from the GUI.
 18. The system as in claim1, wherein the client-side web application code receives the scannedimage information from the scanner web service and sends the scannedimage information to a server.
 19. A method comprising: providing ascanner web service set up as a local host on a computer system, whereinthe scanner web service is configured to: receive from a client-side webapplication code running in a web browser on the computer system an HTTPmessage to the scanner web service; generate a message based at least inpart on the HTTP message; send the generated message to a scannerdriver, wherein the scanner driver is in communication with a scannerconnected to the computer system; receive the scanned image informationfrom the scanner driver; and provide the scanned image information tothe client-side web application code running in the web browser.
 20. Acomputer program product, the computer program product being embodied ina tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium andcomprising computer instructions for: providing a scanner web serviceset up as a local host on a computer system; receiving at the scannerweb service, from a client-side web application code running in a webbrowser on the computer system, an HTTP message to the scanner webservice, wherein the scanner web service only accepts HTTP messages fromthe computer system; generating a message based at least in part on theHTTP message; sending the generated message to a scanner driver, whereinthe scanner driver is in communication with a scanner connected to thecomputer system and is configured to get scanned image information fromthe scanner at least in part in response to the generated message;receiving the scanned image information from the scanner driver; andproviding the scanned image information to the client-side webapplication code running in the web browser.